Current Events Articles: January 2011

The route of this channel follows that of the Tyropoeon Valley. The channel is located beneath the main paved and stepped road which traversed Jerusalem in those days. The road passed next to the Western Wall in the north and down to the Siloam Pool in the southern portion of the City of David. At no point, does the route of either the road or channel pass beneath the Temple Mount.

The facility was unearthed by a team of archaeologists from Armenia, the United States and Ireland in the same mysterious Armenian cave complex where an ancient leather shoe was found, a discovery that was announced last summer.

Kasr al-Yehud, the probable site where John the Baptist baptized his cousin Jesus of Nazareth, will be opened to the public with a special ceremony on January 18 after 42 years as a closed military zone which pilgrims could only visit after coordinating with the Civil Administration for Judea and Samaria.

“It is the first and only ancient instance where we know the owner of a Greek New Testament papyrus,” writes Professor AnneMarie Luijendijk in an article recently published in the Journal of Biblical Literature. “For most early New Testament manuscripts, we do not know where they were found, let alone who had owned them.”

The ancient port of Caesarea, built some 2,000 years ago in the time of Herod, suffered dramatic damage during last week's storm, explained Israel Antiquities Authority head Shuka Dorfman during a tour a few days later. Before the rains and gale-force winds hit, Michael Karsenti, CEO of the Caesarea Development Corporation, had estimated that the area was in need of restoration and preservation that would cost some NIS 60 million. Now, after the disaster, the revised costs cannot be tallied until all the damage becomes clear.